18/08/2026
There was a time when life at the stables was wonderfully simple…
Give us a kettle, a packet of biscuits, a battered grooming kit and a horse… and we were SET.
We’d arrive at the yard in the morning, chuck our jodhpurs on, grab a cup of tea and then disappear for the entire day.
No mobile phones.
No WhatsApp.
No one asking, “Where are you?”
No tracking your location.
No one expecting a photo every five minutes.
Just you, your horse and a whole day at the stables.
The Durdans has always been a place where horses come first, and I wonder how many of you remember those days when the yard was your second home?
You’d muck out.
Ride.
Groom.
Clean tack.
Ride again.
Pop the kettle on.
Have a gossip in the tack room.
And somehow find yourself still there at 7pm wondering where the day had gone!
And let's not forget the essentials…
The yard kettle
A tin of biscuits that mysteriously emptied itself
A grooming kit full of brushes that never seemed to belong to you
Mud EVERYWHERE
Horse hair on absolutely EVERYTHING
An old jacket that permanently smelled of horse
And probably a radio playing somewhere in the background
There were no fancy phones to take 147 photos of your horse doing absolutely nothing.
No Instagram.
No TikTok.
No Facebook groups.
No online shopping for yet another saddle pad because you “really needed that colour.”
Just horses, friends, muddy boots, cold hands, warm drinks and that wonderful feeling that you could stay at the yard all day.
And honestly…
Wouldn't it be lovely to bring a little bit of that back?
The Durdans has so much history, and so many people have memories of growing up around these stables.
So tell us…
What was YOUR essential yard item back in the day?
The trusty kettle
The biscuit tin
Your favourite pair of gloves
Your grooming kit
The yard radio
A bottle of squash
Or something completely different?
And if you have an old photo from your days at The Durdans…
WE WANT TO SEE IT!
Let's have a little trip down memory lane and remind ourselves that sometimes the simplest days were the best ones. ❤️
